


The best time for truth is soon

by caimani



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Demon Shane Madej, M/M, Oblivious Ryan Bergara, Pining, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 12:16:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15908103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caimani/pseuds/caimani
Summary: It takes some time for Ryan to get over the shock of learning that Shane is a demon. But then, questions start to arise in his mind. What better opportunity than this does he have to learn what demons are really like?





	The best time for truth is soon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [imperfectkreis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imperfectkreis/gifts).



> spooky Halloween fic for Poli! its kinda short, but it's fun :]  
> the request was Shane + Glowing eyes

It’s a quiet evening, but Ryan is jet-lagged and doesn’t feel like going out. He, Shane, and a few other people from BuzzFeed are staying at a hotel in London for a convention. Tomorrow, there’s going to be a panel for Unsolved. Ryan tweeted a reminder about the panel before the flight and the amount of attention it’s gotten by now is truly amazing. 

While sitting on the bed in his hotel room, he’s been thinking about all the possible questions people might ask him at the panel. He spent a lot of the flight reviewing some of his notes from past episodes of True Crime and Supernatural, just in case. Shane had continuously told him things would all be fine, but Ryan had the time and the extra preparation made him feel better.

And of course, still constantly sitting at the back of his mind is the big secret. 

Shane’s secret. 

Shane is a demon. A demon who’s been disguised as a human for years and has been making faces at all the ghosts and demons they encounter on location whenever Ryan’s back is turned. Who only revealed himself to catch Ryan after a particularly malicious ghost shoved him down a flight of stairs in the last season.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), that had happened while they and the crew were taking a quick break, when the cameras weren’t rolling. Ryan told the crew he had slipped, and once they were back home, he demanded a full explanation from Shane for the inhuman speed and glowing yellow eyes.

> Hypothetical question: What would you do if you met a demon?  
>  Pre-planned answer: I would be terrified. I don’t know if I would survive the event, since a demon could easily kill me and I would be too scared to fight it.  
>  Real answer, which he can never give: I’ll be in shock for a minute, and then punch the goddamn asshole in the face for lying to me for so long.

Thinking about that brings Ryan to another thing. 

Even though Shane is a bastard and a liar, he at least promised Ryan that he could do whatever he wanted with that information. Ryan could have demanded that Shane expose his demon nature to the entire internet. But what Ryan figured was best was just… continuing as usual. Researching and investigating, with Ryan as the believer and Shane as the cynic. He doesn’t need a demon cohost as his proof that ghosts and demons are real. He knows that they’re real, he just needs video proof. 

And forcing Shane to do something would feel wrong. Plus, at this point, Ryan’s pretty sure it would just be met with a wave of people saying it was all some long planned ARG nonsense. Jesus, he doesn’t need Unsolved to turn into internet creepypasta fuel.

So after that whole revelation, nothing had changed. But everything had changed, even though nothing changed on the surface, which was all that mattered to the viewers and the future of the show.

But under the surface?

Ryan has been bursting with his own curiosity. 

Because Ryan hadn’t insisted that Shane do anything dramatic and demonic, he should be fine with answering some questions, right? He had already acquiesced that ghosts are real. He admitted to sticking his tongue out at the ghosts they walked past at haunted locations. It stands to reason that he’ll just… answer some questions about what demons can do and what they’re like. Maybe even show him some things. 

Like those glowing yellow eyes Ryan’s been thinking of every time he closes his eyes to sleep.

~~~~~

Shane is wiped out from the flight. However, as exhausted as his mortal body is, his mind is awake. Tomorrow is going to be okay. Just another normal interaction with fans. If the questions get too weird, they can laugh them off. Fuck, all of Ryan’s worrying on the flight has gotten to him. He can appreciate the desire to be prepared, but… it’s just going to be a bunch of fans asking questions. Easy.

A knock on his hotel room door brings him out of his thoughts. He can feel Ryan’s distinct soul outside the door, warm and bright. 

He almost gets up to open the door for Ryan, but then he thinks of something else. A little voice he usually ignores in favor of appearing as a normal human tells him that he could open the door from where he’s sitting. Without touching it at all. And this is the only opportunity he really has to do it. Ryan knows he’s a demon and he (probably) won’t freak out. And nobody else is in the hall to see.

Shane smiles and the door opens on its own. Ryan looks startled when he sees Shane sitting on the bed instead of standing behind the door, but then he gets a determined expression on his face and walks in.

“That’s weird as fuck, dude,” Ryan says as the door shuts behind him. “Do you do that all the time when you’re alone?”

Shane shrugs. “Not really. Not where anyone can see, anyways. One time a neighbor saw a door moving on its own and she moved out a week later. Said the place was haunted. I just had my hands full with groceries.”

Ryan rolls his eyes. “Must have been really inconvenient for you after that.”

“Mostly I was upset with what she told the landlady. I mean, ghosts? In my building?” Shane scoffs. “Nope. The only one there left when I moved in.”

Ryan sits down in the chair at the desk. “So… you can move doors.”

Shane raises an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“Can you move… other objects? Without touching them?”

Shane blinks slowly. “Uh. What, is this an interrogation?” Ryan’s not holding a camera or anything that could record things. He doesn’t even have his phone with him. Shane’s not sure what’s going on here.

Ryan fidgets. “Oh, uh, I didn’t mean for it to feel like that. I’m just curious. Is that okay?”

“Oh.” Shane thinks that over quickly. Ryan’s curious about… what, demon abilities? Okay. Yeah, he can understand that. “Yeah, that’s fine. Ask away, anything you want to know.”

Ryan clearly loses a fight to keep a smile off his face. Shane smiles back at him. 

“Okay, um,” Ryan says. “I guess… so when you caught me, you moved super fast.”

“Impossibly fast and strong. My skin is pale white and ice cold. My eyes--”

“Oh, shut the hell up,” Ryan says with one of his familiar wheezes. 

Shane laughs. “Alright. Yeah, those are demon abilities. From what I know, they’re pretty… I guess standard? All the demons I know of are stronger and faster than humans.”

Ryan nods, drinking in the information. “Okay. And… your eyes are yellow?”

Shane holds back the Twilight joke he’s tempted to finish and instead lets his eyes revert to their demonic state. Ryan’s own eyes go wide, partly with amazement and partly with something like fear. His soul sets off noticeable waves of turmoil, similar to how Ryan gets whenever they go someplace spooky.

Ryan shifts in the chair. “Can I, uh, see them closer?”

“Sure,” Shane says.

Apprehensively, Ryan gets off the chair and comes closer, to sit on the edge of the bed. He stares, transfixed, at Shane’s eyes. Shane is silent for a long moment, watching as Ryan’s body starts to relax and his soul calms down. Finally, Ryan takes a steadying breath.

“Is… is there anything else, like--”

Shane swallows. It’s been a long time since he let down the human disguise. Even at home, it’s easier to just keep it up. But he can do this now, he supposes. Just long enough for Ryan to see. 

His short curving horns appear, sticking out of his hair. Awkwardly, he moves around on the bed and reaches back to adjust his pants so his tail can emerge. It’s kind of weirdly intimate, but Ryan doesn’t show any signs of being bothered by that. He scoots closer, completely captivated by Shane’s demonic parts.

Ryan starts to lift a hand up, presumably to touch one of Shane’s horns, and then aborts the movement immediately. “Sorry,” he mutters quickly.

“No, you’re okay,” Shane says. He reaches up to touch his own horn. It’s as warm as the rest of his body, ridged and bony. “It’s fine. You can--if you want.”

Ryan looks like he very much wants to feel it, but he glances away. “Uh. No, it’s okay, I just wanted to see. Um. So. Do most demons look like…?” he trails off, glancing back at Shane. At his eyes and horns and the tail that’s lying comfortably on the bed at Shane’s side.

Shane shrugs. “I don’t know. Some of them, maybe. There’s all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors.”

Ryan nods slowly. He’s back to looking at Shane’s horns. Shane briefly considers taking off his shirt and showing him his wings. That… feels like it might be too much. As he thinks about it, Ryan hesitantly inches closer again. 

“Sorry,” Ryan says softly, even as he lifts his hand up again. He barely touches Shane’s horn, and then quickly draws his hand back. 

“You’re really warm,” he says, surprised. 

“I’m always warm,” Shane says. “I’m alive.”

“I don’t know, I thought… I don’t know what I thought.” Ryan says a little absently, touching the horn again. He brushes two of his fingers against it, and the gentleness of the contact almost tickles. After a moment of feeling it, he gets bolder, and takes the whole thing carefully into his hand.

And. Shane has just noticed how very close Ryan is. He’s sitting cross-legged barely two feet away from him. And he’s leaning into Shane’s space, staring intensely at Shane’s horn. This feels kind of--

Ryan looks away from Shane’s horns and turns his attention to his tail. “This is so weird,” he says, even as he’s reaching for it and--

Oh god. The horn was nothing compared to this. It was probably (definitely) a mistake to bring out the tail while still mostly in human form. Nerves in Shane’s tail light up like an electric current, carrying the stimulation of _touch-touch-touch_ to Shane’s spine and straight up to his brain. And the stupid instinct-driven thing has a mind of its own as it curls, wrapping itself around Ryan’s wrist.

Fuck.

Ryan looks back up at Shane’s face. Shane is burning with embarrassment inside. Ryan’s face breaks into a smile. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he’s going to--

“This is so cool,” Ryan says. “Weird as hell, but cool.” He looks back at where Shane’s tail still hasn’t let him go--stupid thing--and reaches down to untangle his wrist. 

“Sorry,” Shane says, still mortified. “I, um, I don’t really--” He clamps his mouth shut as Ryan somehow touches it in a way that sends more electric signals straight to Shane’s mind. Fuuuck. This is. Not ideal. God, now he understands why so many of his demon peers talked about fucking humans while in a partial human form. This is… 

Ryan gives up on trying to detach himself from Shane’s tail. Okay, that’s something Shane can help with. Something to get his mind off of… where it’s currently going. Not the best time to be thinking about how nice Ryan looks and how smooth his skin is where his tail is wrapped tight around it. 

Tail. “Here, I can…” Shane moves his tail upwards, in a motion that should remove it from Ryan’s arm. That is not what happens. The tail keeps its hold on Ryan and yanks Ryan forward, practically into Shane’s lap. Ryan catches himself at the last second by bracing his hand against Shane’s chest.

And Shane slips. Just for a second, but he can feel his skin go ashen, his eyes turn a brighter yellow, his wings push against his shirt, and his entire body ache with the desire to pull Ryan closer and taste every inch of him and his bright human soul. It’s only for a second, before Shane quickly shoves all of the demonic bits away and mentally locks down his human form. 

But Ryan doesn’t notice, because he’s chuckling and sliding backwards away from Shane. “Wow, that’s weird,” he says with a bright smile and an even brighter shining soul. Something inside Shane is still aching to feel closer to that, and he desperately tries to push it down. 

“Yeah, um,” Shane shrugs awkwardly. “That’s me.” He doesn’t have to know about the wings. Shane doesn’t know if he’d be able to control himself if Ryan started touching them the way he was touching his tail. Fuck, now he’s imagining that.

Ryan shakes his head, still smiling. “The eyes aren’t as creepy when it’s, y’know, part of the whole picture. Normal looking you, with the eyes and the tail and horns. Kinda like a Halloween costume, but alive.”

“Yeah, I’m alive,” Shane repeats, hoping that Ryan will leave soon because he’s still kind of turned on. 

Ryan laughs again and gets up off the bed. “Okay. Cool. I, um. That’s neat. Thanks.”

“Anytime,” Shane says, and then mentally kicks himself.

Thankfully, Ryan seems to have gotten a different idea from that response. “Yeah, if I have any other demon-related questions, I’ll come back. See you tomorrow morning.”

And he leaves. Shane stays where he is, sitting stiffly on the bed. Then, almost abashedly, he brings out his tail and horns again. He reaches up and touches the horn, the way Ryan had. It’s not the same but… for tonight… just to silence the part of him that wants to follow Ryan to his room. It’ll be enough.


End file.
